that night when Joy failed him and Fasting became his companion and
friend.

But how could the virtuous Petter Nord be coming to the village on
a work-day, accompanied by three boon companions, who were loafers
and drunken?

He had always been a good boy, poor Petter Nord. And he had always
tried to help those three good-for-nothings as well as he could,
although he despised them. He had come with wood to their miserable
hovel, when the winter was most severe, and he had patched and
mended their clothes. The men held together like brothers,
principally because they were all three named Petter. That name
united them much more than if they bad been born brothers. And now
they allowed the boy on account of that name to do them friendly
services, and when they had got their grog ready and settled
themselves comfortably on their wooden chairs, they entertained
him, sitting and darning the gaping holes in their stockings, with
gallows humor and adventurous lies. Petter Nord liked it, although
he would not acknowledge it. They were now for him almost what the
mice had been formerly.

Now it happened that these wharf-rats had heard some gossip from
the village. And after the space of six years they brought Petter
Nord information that Halfvorson had put the fifty crowns out for
him to disqualify him as a witness. And in their opinion Petter
Nord ought to go back to the town and punish Halfvorson.

But Petter Nord was sensible and deliberate, and equipped with the
wisdom of this world. He would not have anything to do with such a